I serve as President of Shelanu TV, the only 24.7, Hebrew-language TV channel sharing the message of Yeshua.

I was born into a Jewish home, circumcised and Bar Mitzvah'd, but I did not know God! I realized at age 17, there must be more. This led me on a journey where I discovered that Yeshua (Jesus), whom I thought was for the Gentiles, was in fact, the Jewish Messiah.

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I hold a master's degree from King's University and a doctorate from Liberty University. I served as the Associate Rabbi at Beth Messiah Messianic congregation in Rockville, MD, until my family and I moved to Odesa, Ukraine, to work in the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute as Jewish people were coming to Yeshua in droves. In Ukraine, we birthed a congregation in Bedichev, the city upon which Fiddler on the Roof was based. We then moved to Budapest, Hungary.

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In 1999, we accepted an invitation to teach Jewish Roots at the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry. In 2003, my wife Elana, a native Israeli, and I, along with our girls, made aliyah (moved to Israel). I served as the co-pastor and interim senior pastor of the King of Kings Community in Jerusalem.

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During this time, we birthed the Isaiah 2 Initiative, taking Israeli young adults to third-world nations to preach the message of Yeshua. In Nigeria, these young adults saw many miracles, and tens of thousands profess faith in Yeshua.

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In 2013, I agreed to become the lead pastor of Tiferet Yeshua, a Hebrew-speaking congregation in Tel Aviv. Three years later, we turned the congregation over to a native-born Israeli, while still functioning as an elder there to this day.

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In 2020, GOD TV partnered with several Messianic Israeli leaders to birth Shelanu TV. I was asked to become the president.

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Welcome to 12-Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, His creation. Our prayer is

that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Pastor Ron. How are you today?

I'm great. How are you?

I'm excellent. I'm excellent. It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

I am in Southern Israel in Ashkelon. We've lived here for about 23 years.

Tell us how you've been called to do what you're doing and why you agree with the calling.

I came to faith in 1983. I am Jewish. I never considered that Jesus was

someone that I needed to be concerned about. But when I was in my last year of high school,

my best friend became a believer and began to share the gospel with me.

And I told him that there was nothing in the Bible about being born again,

which is a funny thing to say because I had never read the New Testament. I'd never even

read the Old Testament. And he showed me the words of Jesus where he says you must be born

again to see the kingdom of God. And something happened on the inside of me. I knew he was

telling me the truth. I still ran from it for about eight months, but making a long story short,

one night I went to a movie about Jesus. And on the way home, I prayed. And I asked the Lord to

show me how to serve him. I believed he was real, but I needed to know how to serve him.

And the next thing I know, my friend loses control of the car, flips over upside down,

and we are alive. The car was totaled. We were alive. And we walked up to this one house,

and the people were believers. And as we're calling the police, getting the tow truck,

they shared the gospel with me in greater detail. And the presence and power of God

descended upon me, and it was just beautiful, amazing. And I left that house a new person.

So I ended up marrying an Israeli believer. So I'm American Jewish, and she was Israeli Jewish.

And we knew that God would eventually call us back to Israel. So as our kids were getting older,

we decided in 2003 it was time to move here, and we did so. So no, we have no regrets. We are

blessed. We have pastored here. We've planted here. We now have a TV station that shares the gospel

in Hebrew 24-7. So we are very blessed. How many times have you told that story?

More than I could count. And does it bring some type of joy

the same way it did the first time you told it? You know, it's interesting because it brings back

just the simple joy of experiencing God for the first time. I've now been a believer for 40 years,

but in those first days, I can remember as a young believer working for my father,

he had a grocery store, and I would be putting cans of olives or mushrooms on the counter,

and tears would be streaming down my face because of the presence of God. So when I think back to

those moments, I want to remind myself now that I'm in ministry, now that I've, you know, I've

written books, I've spoken all over the world, those are not the important things. The important

thing is just that simple, beautiful connection with the presence of God. No matter what you're

doing, whether you're famous or not famous, knowing Jesus is what it's all about.

How has your wife been impacted by who you are, Ron?

She is a believer as well, and so we entered into our marriage, you know, with this desire

to reach other Jewish people with the good news. She is much more pastoral and loving and caring

than I am. I am much more zealous and evangelistic, so together we make a pretty good team.

I saw you in a video giving your testimony, and there's a lamp, and you're sitting on a chair

in the middle of what looks like a seaside coast, right?

That's the Mediterranean Sea.

I'm hearing the zealous, and I'm seeing that image. Who's that guy though, and what's his purpose?

You know, he's a guy that didn't have much going for him in life, you know. I'm ADHD. I

had great difficulty in high school. I literally read one book cover to cover during my high

school years, and I graduated very low in my class, and I barely got into a very small junior

college. So I didn't have much going for me, and then God got a hold of me in 1983, and everything

changed. Suddenly I had this thirst to know Him for knowledge. I went to Bible school and graduated

number two in my class. You know, in my master's program, I graduated with a 3.9,

and for my doctoral program, a 4.0. So God took hold of me, somebody with not much going for me,

and He, you know, He gets all the glory for what He's done in my life.

I'm listening, and I'm hearing the same viciousness that I heard before the war,

and you're currently in a space where I have another friend who shares what it looks like in

Israel, the bomb shelters, the alarms, everything that's going on, yeah? Give us context for those

that are listening, please. Well, just so you understand, an hour before I'm doing this

interview, I was in my own bomb shelter, and my wife had gone out for a walk, which meant she was

outside when the sirens ran, so she had to run to an outdoor bomb shelter, and we're trying to call

each other, and then suddenly there is a massive boom, which you don't know, you know, you can't

look out the window because you're in the bomb shelter. You don't know what that boom is. Is it

an anti-missile, defense missile taking out one of these Iranian ballistic missiles, or is it a

direct hit? You don't know, and that was an hour ago, and I still don't know what that was, but

we assume that Iran was trying to take out our, we have an electrical grid a couple miles from here,

so it's a little weird, but I also want to just testify the grace of God, because I don't live

with fear. I'm, you know, even though we are under attack, I tell, whenever we're in the bomb

shelter, I said, Lord, if this is the day, I'm ready to be with you, but I prefer to stay. Let

me finish my race. There's a difference between being Jewish and understanding who you see as

Yeshua. How's that been, that experience between being in Israel and understanding

there's some people, Jews, that do not believe in Yeshua being?

The majority of Jewish people do not believe in Jesus. The Bible predicts, Romans 11.26,

that in the end, all Israel will be saved. A revival is coming here. For the most part,

we don't get a lot of resistance. When I share with people about my faith, there is,

I wouldn't say an openness to becoming a believer, but a curiosity. Who is this American that moved

here, and he's Jewish, but he believes in Jesus? They want to understand that story,

but we are seeing, you know, through our TV station and other ministries here in Israel,

we are seeing more and more Israelis come to that place of faith in Messiah,

but we are a very small minority here. What's on the horizon for you, Ron?

We have a book coming out in just about a month on combating clergy sexual abuse,

which has been a huge issue that we've been addressing for the past couple years. Beyond

that, we don't know. We just continue to run the race. If I would have told you where I'm at now

five years ago, I would not have been able to tell you then, so we're just going to keep running

with Jesus and see where that takes us. Five years from today, you're listening

to this conversation. What's a message you'd leave for future you?

Don't give up. Don't listen to the naysayers. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Remember that the most

important thing is your relationship with Him. It's not about what others say. It's not about

fame. It's not about reach. It's about intimacy with Jesus.

Hmm. Ron, this has been a great pleasure. In closing, is there anything else you'd

like to share with our amazing audience? Well, I just want to encourage your audience

to keep praying for Israel. Pray for revival in Israel. Pray that the promises of God of an

end-time awakening here would come to pass and it would be soon.

Pastor Ron Cantor, thank you for being on What is Inspired by 12 Minute Convos.